Oraisa Estrada, the Afro-descendant Cuban activist who this week elicited a standing ovation at the V Permanent Forum of the UN on People of African Descent in Geneva, delivered a direct message to her sisters on the island and firmly rejected the character of "Cintumbare" as an image fabricated by the regime to ridicule Cuban women.
"We are not the Cintumbare. I tell the rest of America who think that all Cubans are Cintumbare: No, we Cubans are funny, we laugh, we have our own charming way of speaking, but we are not that character that Sandro Castro and the regime have tried to portray on social media to make people believe that this is how Cubans are. Don't imitate, because those who imitate fail," she stated.
In an interview with CiberCuba, following his speech at the forum, held from April 14 to 17 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Estrada noted that the regime uses drugs as a tool for social control in the peripheral neighborhoods where the majority of the Afro-descendant population lives.
The activist, a member of Cubans for Progress and Integration in Valencia, issued a call to Afro-descendant Cuban women to channel their bravery towards political struggle rather than conflicts among themselves.
"There are many ways to bring down that regime. Don't use those curse words that are of no help to you. Use your voices, use your strength to end the regime," he told them.
Estrada reminded about the political prisoners who remain in Cuban prisons, including a mother of two small children, who did not die in prison, "she was killed," and called for the same courage now that those who took to the streets on July 11, 2021, displayed.
The activist also emphasized the racial symbolism of what happened at the UN, where the official Cuban representative tried to silence her at a forum specifically dedicated to the rights of Afro-descendants.
"The representative of Cuba, like most of those in political positions on the Island, is white-skinned, while the Afro-descendant is defending our political prisoners, and that white-skinned gentleman at a forum of Afro-descendants says no, that he cannot continue denouncing what is happening in the regime with the Afro-descendants. It's very symbolic," noted Tania Costa, a journalist from CiberCuba, during her interview with Oraisa Estrada, whose intervention at the UN went viral.
After her intervention in Geneva, Estrada is getting ready to travel to Barcelona this Saturday, where she plans to protest in front of the progressive summits led by Spanish president Pedro Sánchez, which will be attended by leaders who support the Cuban regime.
During the interview with CiberCuba, Estrada also shared that there was a very emotional moment when the African queen mother, who was present at the forum, approached her after her speech and conveyed a message that the activist carries with her: "Keep speaking beautifully to the world and shout at power. Tell your truth to power."
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